When a bullet in the head gives Nick a bout of amnesia, LaCroix remembers a time when Nick had saved him from certain death.
LC: [ragged, on a couch, staked, in pain] "Nicholas, be so good as to relieve me of this, will you." (I like how NK can only talk to LaCroix here, because he keeps LC incapacitated.)
N: "Only if you tell me, first, how it got there." (And, by the way, why does Nick need to know how it happened? I'm giving no implications to his motivations on that inquiry.)
LC: "An instant of improvidence, a soldier's last lucky blow in battle. I was about to dispense a merciful end to his suffering when he managed to inflict, this...inconvenience on me."
N: (Look away, boy.) "Such ingratitude." (Take your jabs, when you can!)
LC: "Yes...it is...increasingly unpleasant...and more than a little annoying. The soldier has been dispatched to hell. As I will shortly be, if you do not help me, ['help me' delivered with a touch of desperation] that is."
N: (Smiling, savoring his superiority at the moment.) "It's an interesting dilemma, isn't it?"
LC: "Yes. I wish you would remember that our relationship hasn't always been this...difficult." (Ah huh. Nudge nudge, smirk smirk.)
N: "I will help you...and then I will go on my own way without you. [changes his tone here, gathering conviction to his voice] It's time I moved on...at least for a while." (Gee, an obvious admission of <I will come back.>? Oh, and about keeping Uncle staked. -- Surely Nikkie knows LaCroix will agree to anything his child requests. He is, after all, close to death. Does Nick need to hear it so badly that he'll do whatever he must to have his master tell him it's okay to leave. Even if if he knows LC will lie????)
LC: "Of course. I only hope that you will consider that you chose to remain with me, for so long," (Won't touch that one.) "of your volition. You really do 'like' me...[Nick glances away, over his shoulder, at the remark] you just don't know that you do." (Won't touch that one either.) "Now, s'il vous plait."
After all that accusing, Brickster still positions his foot on LaCroix and, hands on wooden stake, yanks that puppy out.
In a later flash back:
Nicholas is feeding LC from his wrist. (So why didn't he let him die and be fully free? Can't live with him, can't live without him. -- Nikkie?)
Write to Jules at [email protected]
Return to the Episode Slants and Missing Scenes